Sensitivity Labels not available in Excel, Word or PowerPoint only in Outlook.

Mathious Willie 5

A month ago I configured my organization's sensitivity labels through Microsoft Purview Information Protection. I enabled the feature to have the labels visible in office so that employees could label documents. However, I have been on a goose chase since then as I am yet to see the sensitivity labels available in Word, Excel, PowerPoint (Desktop or Web Versions) etc..

The only app that I can see them appear in is in Microsoft outlook.

I am aware of the fact that the labeling features of Information Protection will be retired this month, and I will have to use the built-in labeling system, which I am not sure how to setup.

PRADEEPCHEEKATLA 90,226 Reputation points

2024-04-15T08:53:31.0733333+00:00
@Mathious Willie - Thanks for the question and using MS Q&A platform.

Firstly, it's important to note that sensitivity labels in Microsoft Purview Information Protection are being retired this month, and you will need to use the built-in labeling system going forward.

Regarding your issue with sensitivity labels not appearing in Word, Excel, PowerPoint, etc., it's possible that the sensitivity labels have not been enabled for those applications. To enable sensitivity labels for Office applications, you can follow these steps:

Open the Microsoft 365 compliance center.

Go to Sensitivity labels > Label policies.

Select the label policy that you want to edit.

Under Label settings, select Office apps.

Select the Office apps that you want to enable sensitivity labels for.

Save your changes.

Once you have enabled sensitivity labels for the Office applications, you should be able to see them in Word, Excel, PowerPoint, etc.

If you are still having trouble, please let me know and provide more information about your setup so that I can assist you better.

Meanwhile you may checkout the below articles:
Apply sensitivity labels to your files and email

Known issues with sensitivity labels in Office

Manage sensitivity labels in Office apps

Hope this helps. Do let us know if you any further queries.
Mathious Willie 5 Reputation points

2024-04-15T12:32:10.73+00:00

@PRADEEPCHEEKATLA Thank you so much for your response. I think my issue is with finding the compliance portal then. when i login to Microsoft 365 admin portal

I go to compliance as seen above. I am then taken to the Microsoft Purview Compliance Portal where this is what I see

I do not see Sensitivity Labels. The only way here to get to Sensitivity Labels is through MIP.
PRADEEPCHEEKATLA 90,226 Reputation points

2024-04-16T07:39:53.8+00:00
@Mathious Willie - It sounds like you may not have the necessary permissions to access the Sensitivity Labels feature in the Microsoft Purview Compliance Portal.

To access Sensitivity Labels in the Microsoft Purview Compliance Portal, you need to have the Sensitivity Label Administrator or Compliance Administrator role assigned to your account. If you don't have either of these roles, you won't be able to see the Sensitivity Labels option in the portal.

To check your role assignments, you can follow these steps:

Go to the Microsoft 365 admin center.

Select Users > Active users.

Select your user account.

Under Roles, check if you have the Sensitivity Label Administrator or Compliance Administrator role assigned.

If you don't have either of these roles assigned, you will need to contact your organization's Microsoft 365 administrator to have them assign the appropriate role to your account.

Once you have the necessary permissions, you should be able to access the Sensitivity Labels feature in the Microsoft Purview Compliance Portal and follow the steps I provided earlier to enable sensitivity labels for Office applications.
Mathious Willie 5 Reputation points

2024-04-16T11:26:25.09+00:00

@PRADEEPCHEEKATLA Below are the roles assigned to me. I have the Compliance Administrator role assigned to my account. I will get my admin to assign the Sensitivity Label Administrator role applied to my account as well. If This doesn't help is it a case of disabling the feature in MIP? If so how do I go about doing so?
PRADEEPCHEEKATLA 90,226 Reputation points

2024-04-19T08:16:40.7633333+00:00

@Mathious Willie - I agree that this issue looks strange and I wasn't able to reproduce this issue. If you have a support plan could you please file a support ticket for deeper investigation and do share the SR# with us?
PRADEEPCHEEKATLA 90,226 Reputation points

2024-04-22T03:45:58.53+00:00

@Mathious Willie - Did you get a chance to open a support ticket to resolve the issue?
Pauline Mbabu 480 Reputation points Microsoft Employee

2024-05-06T14:03:35.45+00:00

@Mathious Willie I want to understand the issue you are experiencing, If the issue is locating the sensitivity Label policies, what do you see when you toggle the Information Protection section from the screenshot you shared?
Mathious Willie 5 Reputation points

2024-05-09T11:28:03.3033333+00:00

@pauline mbabu I can see the Labels, Label Policies and Auto Labeling Tabs when I toggle the Information Protection Section. The issue is trying to understand how to get the sensitivity label button to show up in office apps (Word, Excel, PowerPoint). Right now It is only showing up in Outlook.

Below is a screenshot of what I see when I toggle the IP Section.

Below is what I see in Outlook. The button is available and I can choose the labels I want to apply.

However I don't see the button in Excel, Word or PowerPoint and I am pretty sure I enabled that functionality.

So the issue here is what do I need to do to get the button to show up in the office apps?
Rick Tucker 5 Reputation points

2024-05-15T13:29:15.85+00:00

I am dealing with the same issue as @Mathious Willie . Having reproduced the steps as mentioned, the labels do show in Outlook, but not in WORD.
Rick Tucker 5 Reputation points

2024-05-22T09:44:14.7933333+00:00

@Mathious Willie , I've managed to let the sensitivity labels appear within WORD web version in the meantime. Have you already switched on the co-authoring for files encrypted with sensitivity labels? The following post should help you on this:

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/purview/sensitivity-labels-coauthoring